by Karl Weber
“Not as safe you might think,” Anna stated in a low-pitched threatening tone. Blake peered left to see Anna, still dressed in her tac suit minus the balaclava, bent over beside him, and holding her black beret combat knife at his throat.
“Anna, control your emotions. Remember what’s important. He’s no good to us dead,” Jack was keen to remind her. She shot him a glare before returning her attention back to Blake.
“My sister is important to me, and the last time I checked, this fuck put her life in danger and made one of my closest friends betray me.” She leaned in closer and whispered into Blake’s ear, “And right now all I’m thinking about is retribution.” Her statement made Blake give off a light shudder.
“Ready to cooperate?” Jack asked with his arms crossed.
“Promise me asylum and I’ll be an open book,” Blake responded. Anna stepped away from him, looking slightly disappointed with his answer. He took a deep breath, enjoying the relief of no longer having a knife at his throat.
“Who did you work for?”
“The Deep State,” Blake quickly answered.
“Was able to put that together on our own. A name would be useful.”
There was a moment of silence before Blake answered, “Donavan.”
“Donavan? You mean Gregory Donavan as in the Speaker of the House?”
“He was the one who recruited me and who I answered to.”
“Shit,” Jack muttered.
“And I’m sure he takes orders from someone even higher up than him. The Deep State only gets deeper and darker the further down the rabbit hole you dare to venture.”
“Would Donavan care to see harm come to Huckleberry?”
“I know he would,” Blake immediately answered. “The Deep State wants total control, and Huckleberry stands in its way. They want Roger Coleman in office as their puppet. Unfortunately for them, Coleman won’t win the election against Huckleberry that is fast approaching. They’ll need to remove him in a much more direct manner.”
“You’re confident that an attack on the president’s life is in the works?”
“Most definitely. Not long from now, we will see an attack come to head.”
Chapter 5
“You do realize what the fallout would be if we were caught spying on the Speaker of the House with an owl drone, right?” Fred Peterson asked Jack. They had an up-close aerial view of Gregory Donavan’s D.C. home, thanks to the cloaking technology of the Covert Third Series Owl Drone Vigilance had in its arsenal of toys.
Jack gave Peterson a playful slap on the shoulder before saying, “That’s why we hired you. You’re the best there is when it comes to piloting these things and not getting noticed.”
“Just like our motto, Unseen by All …”
“But Felt by Many, that’s right.” It was Vigilance’s motto that Jack and Anna had come up with when President Huckleberry sanctioned them the agency. On paper Vigilance was technically a top-secret directorate of Homeland Security, to keep its whereabouts unknown to the public and to bypass all the political maneuvering involved in starting an all-new intelligence agency. However, even though technically under the banner of Homeland Security, Vigilance had enough of its own resources to operate independently.
Jack noticed Anna walk into the command center. Her heels clicked as she walked across the polished concrete flooring toward the hologram projector.
“What do we have on Donavan’s estate?” She asked while turning her attention to the video feed of the three-story, red-brick condominium complex and its neighborhood.
“He lives near Capitol Hill on Vermont Avenue. I got Freddy to dust off the owl drone so we could get an idea what Donavan’s got for security.”
“Anything out of the ordinary?”
“Not really.” Jack pointed at the two men in suits standing at the front of the apartment. “He has two bodyguards who pick him up every morning right about now.”
The front door of the apartment slid open. The next moment House Speaker Gregory Donavan walked through. He had a husky build with brown hair and glasses. He had the demeanor of someone extremely entitled as he gestured for his bodyguards to follow with a simple hand gesture. Just another politician who had done nothing his whole life but be an overpaid government official, all while feeling superior to those around him.
Peterson zoomed out with the drone’s camera to keep Donavan and his men in frame. One of Donavan’s bodyguards opened the rear passenger door to the blacked-out SUV parked on the street in front of Donavan’s sidewalk. He hopped into the seat and slid his wide frame inside. The bodyguards shut the door before entering the vehicle themselves and driving away.
Jack looked at the digital clock on the wall that read eight a.m. He looked back at Anna with a smug smile displayed on his face. “Eight a.m. on the dot every time.”
“When does he return home?” Anna asked.
“Eight p.m. Also on the dot every time.”
Anna nodded her head. Donavan was a creature of habit, which she liked. Studying habits and exploiting those habits was all part of the game of vigilance. She took a moment analyzing the condo that was Donavan’s D.C. home.
It looked recently renovated by the looks of the clean, old-fashioned red brick and the modern smart windows that were currently opaque. Smart windows being windows that could change from transparent clear glass to opaque frosted glass, a standard for homes in 2048. The condo was attached to other condos of the same size and stature but in differing colors of brick. When studying the property, Anna thought about what her options for entry were.
The front door was an obvious one, but there was a decent amount of foot traffic on the sidewalks, some of which would still be there at night to some degree. Courtesy of living so close to where all the action happened in D.C. That was partially the reason for D.C. officials having street cameras installed throughout the D.C. area that kept almost all the roads and sidewalks under close surveillance.
The surveillance system was a huge inconvenience for spies like Anna. Even with the cloaking device on her tac suit, going through the front door could still draw unwanted attention from a door opening on its own. There was a series of windows she could open with her glass-cutting device. Although a window suddenly having a huge hole in it probably would also draw attention.
“Peterson, position the drone to get us a view of the back of the condo,” Anna ordered.
“Yes, director,” Peterson replied while he began to maneuver the drone over the building. When over the roof, Anna took note that there was no roof access. Peterson maneuvered the invisible drone until it was hovering over the small backyard attached to the condo. The yard’s grass was covered with morning dew and looked identical to every other backyard attached to the other condos.
“No street access from the rear,” Peterson pointed out. He was right. Donavan’s backyard on all sides was connected to nothing but identical looking yards to other condos.
The very simple and low-security white vinyl fencing that separated the properties did, however, help Anna hatch an idea. “I won’t approach the property from the front.”
“Then how do want to do this?” Jack asked.
“Simple …”
Chapter 6
Several hours after Anna came up with her plan for infiltration, she found herself hugging the cold metal bed of a service vehicle with a black tarp lying on top of her. The truck hit a bump in the road, making Anna smack her head against the greasy, metal-truck bed. It was the third bump she’d felt since the start of the trip.
“I swear to God, Jackson, if you hit another hole in the road, I’ll put a hole in your head,” she shouted into the microphone attached to her earpiece.
“I’ll try my best not to,” Jackson replied. His voice was like that of a private responding to his sergeant. He was another agent of Vigilance, a former Marine who had been discharged early in his military career due to injury.
With almost every inch of the D.C. streets under survei
llance and with no blind spots in the camera grid that she knew of, Anna had been forced to come up with a clever way to approach Donavan’s home unseen.
“We’re approaching the drop-point,” Jackson announced.
Anna tapped on her SCU and activated the MLS device on her suit, becoming invisible underneath the tarp. She grabbed the black tarp, ready to move.
Jackson started to count down: “Five, four, three, two, one. Now.”
Anna pulled the tarp back, giving her a view of the overcast night sky. The truck looked no different than any other civilian service vehicle with toolboxes on both sides and an empty bed for storage. It rolled down the road as Anna vaulted out of the bed. She landed feet first on the concrete sidewalk.
Across the small suburban road wasn’t Donavan’s condo but the one behind him. The camera grid faced the side of the condos that faced the roads, but not the backside. There were few pedestrians walking up and down the sidewalks, not that Anna minded, of course.
She turned her focus toward the gray-colored condo in front of her and, after crossing the street, activated the MAG tech on her gloves and boots. She took hold of the condo’s gray-colored brick. Taking it one hand and foot at a time, Anna scaled directly up the building.
While she climbed, a small sting of coldness hit her on the bridge of her nose, the only skin the balaclava didn’t cover. About time it started snowing, Anna thought. Light snow flurries started raining down from the overcast sky. It was late October, and it was the first snow D.C. had seen this winter. Anna had scaled three stories by the time she reached the ledge of the roof. She grabbed the ledge and pulled herself over, and now had her feet on the roof.
Anna had a good view of Donavan’s home from the roof of his neighbor. She checked her SCU to see how long she had left on the current charge of her MLS device. One minute, which meant she only had one minute left to get inside the house before getting spotted and blowing the operation.
She started jogging across the rooftop until she made it to the opposite ledge. Nobody was in any backyard, probably thanks to the bad weather. Anna headed down the building headfirst, knowing she could descend quicker that way. She hustled down the side of the building like a quick spider. Her hands touched the damp grass first as she made it to the bottom. Still on the clock, she continued running.
In one swift movement, she vaulted over the white vinyl fence into Donavan’s backyard. After making it past the metal patio furniture, Anna was at the back door of Donavan’s condo. There was a camera mounted just above the door. Anna took out her MTSO9 handgun already loaded with VL rounds. She aimed it at the camera that was almost at point-blank range above her head and fired. With the camera blinded, she turned her attention toward the door.
It was equipped with a basic digital-number combination lock. Anna used the SCU’s hacking module. It quickly found the four-digit combination followed by the numbers flashing green to declare entry. The door slid open. Anna stepped inside the kitchen.
Quickly Anna changed the mode on her SCU to its electromagnetic field sensor and did a quick sweep for cameras, but found none. She took the next moment just to breathe and slow her mind down after the sprint it took to get inside. She checked the time on her SCU. Seven fifty, ten minutes till Donavan would get home. Enough time to investigate the house for anything useful. Her MLS device shut off, rendering Anna visible to the naked eye.
Anna winked with her left eye to give herself night-vison before she began moving further into Donavan’s home. She stepped out of the kitchen and onto the laminate flooring of the living room. The living area was lavishly decorated and furnished with high-end expensive furniture. Off to the side of the living room was a staircase. With her pistol up, Anna proceeded up the staircase. She took every step gently to reduce noise in case somebody was home.
At the top of the stairs was an assortment of doorways. One by one Anna checked what was behind each of the translucent glass doors, the first being what looked to be an empty guest bedroom, followed by a bathroom and then a master bedroom. There was one room left to check on the floor, the only one where Anna noticed that a light was turned on. She opened the door and then realized she wasn’t alone in the house.
A large dog that looked to be a Rottweiler was lying down having a nap on a comfortable looking rug next to an armchair in what seemed to be Donavan’s office. Some guard dog you are, Anna thought. To be fair to the dog, if Anna wasn’t trained in minimizing sound and was just some regular house burglar, then the dog might’ve heard her come in and tore her to pieces. The dog was going to be an issue when dealing with Donavan, so Anna dealt with it the only way she knew how.
Gregory Donavan felt tired after what felt like a day that wouldn’t end. He dismissed his bodyguards before he headed inside his home.
“Ralphie,” Donavan shouted. It was routine for him. Every night when he got home, the first thing he would do was call for his dog Ralphie, who would run downstairs. It was affection he found invaluable after losing his wife to cancer.
“Ralphie, Daddy’s home,” Donavan shouted again. Something wasn’t right. Ralphie never took this long to come to him.
“Ralphie,” Donavan shouted again, this time with worry in his voice. He headed upstairs, as he knew Ralphie liked to sleep on the nice soft rug in his office. After reaching the top of the stairs, Donavan raised an eyebrow when he noticed the light was off in his office through the translucent glass of the door. He always kept the light on in his office for his dog.
Donavan opened the door and stepped inside the pitch-black room. He reached for the light switch until a voice stopped him.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Anna said. She was sitting in the armchair with the night-vision mode of her Predator Lenses activated, her legs crossed and holding her MTSO9 in one hand just in case Donavan decided to act brave.
“What did you do to my dog?” Donavan asked. Anna sensed the worry he had for his K-9 best friend.
She looked down at the dog on the rug that she had shot with a sedation round to keep him asleep. “Nothing to be concerned with as long as you cooperate,” Anna stated with authority.
“Okay,” Donavan said while he nodded in the darkness. “What do you want from me?”
“The POTUS has a lot of enemies, Mr. Donavan. What’s the old saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”
“What’re you implying?”
Anna uncrossed her legs, stood out of the armchair, and approached Donavan. He tensed up as he noticed his interrogator’s menacing red irises approach him, stalking him like prey. “I’m implying that I believe you wouldn’t be bothered by the idea of Huckleberry seeing an early end.”
Donavan scoffed, seeming unfazed by the statement. Within a second Anna drew her combat knife from its sheathe in her boot and brought the tip up to Donavan’s throat. He gulped as an immediate reaction and looked much less composed than he did a second ago.
“I know your conspiring in an assassination plot against the president. So the next noise you utter from your fat lips better be something related to the matter. Otherwise, I might be compelled to take less civil action against you and those you love.” Anna gestured with her eyes at the large dog still sleeping on the rug. Her threat made Donavan go wide-eyed.
“Alright, I’ll cooperate, just don’t hurt my dog,” Donavan said defeatedly. “You’re right, an attack is coming.”
“When, where, and how?”
“I’m afraid I only know who. I was tasked to use my CIA connections to recruit manpower needed for a job.”
“Tobias Blake?” Anna only asked to see if Donavan’s story lined up with Blake’s.
“Him? No. We cut ties with him almost a month ago. He was previously my main connection with the CIA. Without him it’s been much more difficult to procure the type of men needed for our operations.”
“Our?”
Donavan sighed, knowing he’d already said too much. “I can’t …”
“Can’t what? Do I
need to demonstrate what I’m capable of, Speaker?” Anna gestured again at the dog.
“No. Please don’t.” Donavan’s dog was the only real family he had left. He couldn’t afford to lose Ralphie. “We’re all meeting tomorrow night in a virtual conference room. There we’ll be going over the final details.”
“And what if I just so happened to want to make myself an acquaintance?”
Donavan gritted his teeth before he responded. “Transparence Software. A server farm located at the edge of town.”
“Thank you,” Anna said to Donavan with a hint of mischief in her voice right before she fired a shot into his back. He fell onto the floor unconscious, courtesy of the sedation rounds Anna had loaded in her MTSO9. Using all her leg power, Anna set Donavan in the armchair. He would wake up hours later not remembering this entire conversation, thanks to a side effect of the poison the sedation rounds were filled with.
Anna retraced her steps to get out of the house through the same door where she came in.
“I’m ready for extraction. Be ready at pickup point,” Anna said over comms.
“Roger. Already in place,” Jackson replied.
Right before stepping through the back door, Anna reactivated the MLS device on her tac suit. The exfiltration route was different from the infiltration one, but the idea was the same. Through the back door, Anna started scaling the side of Donavan’s home. Once on the roof, she could see the white service vehicle where Jackson waited for her. She went down the other side of the building until she was back on the street. She walked across the street, hopped into the bed of the service vehicle, and covered herself with the black tarp like she had before.
“I’m in. Get down the road,” Anna said.
“Roger,” Jackson answered. The service truck pulled off the shoulder and was down the road.
Chapter 7
The following morning Anna was leaned back in the comfortable chair inside her office. She looked out her window at the sunrise over Chesapeake Bay. It was a scene she hadn’t gotten tired of seeing ever since moving into the building.
